Saturday, 10 December 2011

How to upgrade Huawei WA1003A to a Feature Rich Firmware

I am one of those guys who still have the Huaweii WA1003a Router provided by BSNL and its still working perfectly (guess a solid build) , but its nearly 7 years passed and no new firmware update was provided , on asking for newer version of firmware in huawei forums... the reply was shocking as one of Huawei staff replied "Sorry , Quidway 1003A is a terminal product not a DATACOM router."(Source: http://forum.huawei.com/jive4/thread.jspa?threadID=319714&tstart=1&orderStr=9).

The upgrade process is a little difficult , but people who have knowledge of linux commands should handle this fairly easily. THIS UPGRADE PROCESS IS NOT FOR NOVICES AND ANY MISTAKES MAY BRICK THE ROUTER AND MAKE IT USELESS.

ALSO , MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ACCESS TO OTHER MEANS OF INTERNET CONNECTION LIKE MOBILE GPRS / 3G AVAILABLE IN THE EVENT OF YOU BRICKING THE ROUTER... YOU CAN USE READ THE UNBRICKING PROCEDURE IN INTERNET AGAIN.

AN SMALL INTROduction TO BEGIN:

Most of the routers today have hardware like RAM , ROM , Processor and a Boot loader, and so can run OS like Linux on it. This applies to my old Router Huawei WA1003a which on Inspection has the following configuration.

My inspection of Huawei WA1003a reveals the following:

Cpu model : MIPS 4KEc V4.8 / 149.91 MHZ

OS : Linux version 2.4.17_mvl21-malta-mips_fp_le / MontaVista Linux

RAM : 16 MB ( please verify anyone)

Boot Loader : Adam 2

UPGRADATION PROCESS:

I Have divided the process into 4 phases and explanations are also provided in each phase :

Phase1: Install necessary softwares

Phase2:Pre-Update configuration

Phase3: Upgrade

Phase4:Post-Update configuration

CAUTION:

·I have done this step-by-step many times and worked fine for me,

·However , it is your risk to proceed or not as it may sometimes brick the router.

·Initially I too bricked my router many times but finally I determined a way to restore it.

·You can also restore the old Huawei firmware if you don’t like this firmware.

·And finally , If you are novice and new to Linux , then please don’t use this as any wrong step may brick your router.

NOTE :

TRY THIS PROCEDURE IN A WINDOWS XP 32 BIT OS
WITH NO ANTI VIRUS SOFTWARE OR FIREWALL INSTALLED
ALSO DISABLE WINDOWS FIREWALL

Phase1: Install necessary softwares

·I tried this in Windows XP Professional 32 Bit edition and it works fine

·THIS PROCEDURE WONT WORK in Win7 or Ubuntu

·ALSO MAKE A NOTE OF BSNL (ISP) PROVIDED USER NAME AND PASSWORD FOR YOUR ROUTER SEPERATELY.

goto Start -> Run -> and type Telnet
you will find a Telnet Window as shown
type “o 192.168.1.1 ” , of course without QuotesNote: The Default Router IP Address is 192.168.1.1 , if you have changed the default router IP address , then you have to enter that value
Now if you are successful , your telnet window will prompt for User name and password
The Default user name is “root” (FOR HUAWEI WA1003A)
The Default password is “admin” (FOR HUAWEI WA1003A)

Once , you login successfully, you can enter commands to the router.

·enter the following commands

1.cd /var/tmp/

2.cat /dev/mtdblock/0 > mtd0

3. ifconfig br0 mtu 500

4. tftp -p -l /var/tmp/mtd0 192.168.1.10 -r mtd0

And then delete mtd0 to make some free space…

5. rm mtd0

6. cat /dev/mtdblock/1 > mtd1

Actually you will get an read i/o error here.. but continue

7. tftp -p -l /var/tmp/mtd1 192.168.1.10 -r mtd1

8. rm mtd1

9. cat /dev/mtdblock/2 > mtd2

10. tftp -p -l /var/tmp/mtd2 192.168.1.10 -r mtd2

11. rm mtd2

12. cat /dev/mtdblock/3 > mtd3

13. tftp -p -l /var/tmp/mtd3 192.168.1.10 -r mtd3

14. rm mtd3

15. cat /dev/mtdblock/4 > mtd4

16. tftp -p -l /var/tmp/mtd4 192.168.1.10 -r mtd4

And finally delete mtd4 from temp

17. rm mtd4

To check the process is correct , you will have the following as output

* first thing you have to do is to reset your Router to defaults and enter a fresh configuration of user name and password ... and Enjoy!

Do post your queries here itself and dont PM me... Thanks

References:
I found very helpful resources from these sites...
1.http://www.linuxsmiths.com/blog/?p=427
2.http://www.routertech.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4512

Update : guys i restored back to original huawei firmware as i found / random delays in getting internet connection..... currently i am in huawei orgiginal firmware only... will try rr firmware after a new version comes..

Am I missing something here or the above steps need some more fine tuning ???

Secondly....

PCTool only retrieving my pc ip and not able to select flash, binary, load new firmware image files etc,. not sure what was wrong in that.

Only difference is i am tryingout in Windows 7, i read that warning it wont work n Wndows 7, dont see any reason why cant t work n wndows 7, unfortunately do not have ay windows xp machnes, can someone help here...

Otherwse i love this solution... exited to make t happen to see the results...